Remember that the value of portions is the variable considered to determine the best choice not the number of portions. Thus, 1/3 of the residue is most favourable to grandfather since he will be entitled to 0.25 of the estate as against 0.17 or 0.19 if he has chosen 1/6 of the estate or muqasama respectively.

Grandfather may choose either 1/6 of the estate or inherit bymuqasama. Notice that he is inheriting along with only one full sister, yet his value of portion is the same for both options. That is why in the presence of other heirs, Rules X and Y are not applicable.

Inheritance of grandfather along with combination of “fulls” and “consanguines” in the PRESENCE of other heirs

c) MuqasamaGrandfather acts as full brother. As a result, consanguine brothers are excluded.

Heirs

Mother

Full sister

Grandfather

2 Consanguine brothers

Shares

1/6

Residue

“Excluded”

Base number

6

Portions

1

5

New base number

18

New portions

3

5

10

Values

0.17

0.28

0.56

Muqasama is better for grandfather. And the interesting thing is that no heir has the right to oppose any choice he makes. In this example for instance, the two consanguine brothers are not allowed to persuade the grandfather to take 1/6 of the estate, since by muqasama or 1/3 of residue they will have nothing.

It is necessary to determine the portion and value of grandfather in all three cases before reaching a conclusion; otherwise, he will be wrongly excluded when he should actually be entitled to a share. The following exercise will prove that.

Exercise 3

A woman leaves behind her husband, two daughters, mother, grandfather and full brother. How will the estate be shared among them?Solution

Your Questions, Our Answers

We have received a number of emails from those who visited this website or downloaded and read INHERITANCE IN ISLAM. Almost all of them were questions on either aspects of inheritance not covered in the book or clarifications needed regarding specific cases. Hence, we thought it wise to reproduce the emails so that others may benefit as well. As always, we welcome suggestions, criticisms and of course, more questions!